Plate LVII. Halona excavations as seen from Zuñi.
[ HALONA.]
An ancient pueblo called Halona is said to have belonged to the Cibolan group, and to have been inhabited at the time of the conquest. It occupied a portion of the site upon which the present pueblo of Zuñi stands. A part of this pueblo was built on the opposite side of the river, where the remains of walls were encountered at a slight depth below the surface of the ground in excavating for the foundations of Mr. Cushing’s house. At that time only scattered remains of masonry were met with, and they furnished but little indication of details of plan or arrangement. Later—during the summer of 1888—Mr. Cushing made extensive additions to his house on the south side of the river, and in excavating for the foundations laid bare a number of small rooms. Excavation was continued until December of that year, when a large part of the ancient village had been exposed. [Pl. LVII], from a photograph, illustrates a portion of these remains as seen from the southwest corner of Zuñi. The view was taken in the morning during a light fall of snow which, lightly covering the tops of the walls left standing in the excavations, sharply defined their outlines against the shadows of the rooms.
It seems impossible to restore the entire outline of the portion of Halona that has served as a nucleus for modern Zuñi from such data as can be procured. At several points of the present village, however, vestiges of the old pueblo can be identified. Doubtless if access could be obtained to all the innermost rooms of the pueblo some of them would show traces of ancient methods of construction sufficient, at least, to admit of a restoration of the general form of the ancient pueblo. At the time the village was surveyed such examination was not practicable. The portion of the old pueblo serving as a nucleus for later construction would probably be found under houses Nos. 1 and 4, forming practically one mass of rooms. Strangers and outsiders are not admitted to these innermost rooms. Outcrops in the small cluster No. 2 indicate by their position a continuous wall of the old pueblo, probably the external one. Portions of the ancient outer wall are probably incorporated into the west side of cluster No. 1. On the north side of cluster No. 2 (see [Pl. LXXVI]) may be seen a buttress-like projection whose construction of small tabular stones strongly contrasts with the character of the surrounding walls, and indicates that it is a fragment of the ancient pueblo. This projecting buttress answers no purpose whatever in its present position.
The above suggestions are confirmed by another feature in the same house-cluster. On continuing the line of this buttress through the governor’s house we find a projecting fragment of second story wall, the character and finish of which is clearly shown in [Pl. LVIII]. Its general similarity to ancient masonry and contrast with the present careless methods of construction are very noticeable. The height of this fragment above the ground suggests that the original pueblo was in a very good state of preservation when it was first utilized as a nucleus for later additions. That portion under house No. 1 is probably equally well preserved. The frequent renovation of rooms by the application of a mud coating renders the task of determining the ancient portions of the cluster by the character of the masonry a very difficult one. Ceilings would probably longest retain the original appearance of the ancient rooms as they are not subjected to such renovation.
